Help me with my game against a freind.

[aswfreak12]

Alright, so I'm playing as the hippus and he is playing as the calabim. Its a two/three continent map and he started gaining a foothold on mine by taking some of the Sidar cities that are on a little peninsula connected by a small land bridge to the rest of the continent. When I showed up with a large contingent of mounted mercenaries and took his relatively undefended cities and pushed him back down to one, Celo.

From there he fortified and began to push me back and has a large force of vampires and ashen/veil and calabim heroes with a large economy and strong research.

While I on the other hand have a weaker economy and am building wealth to buy 4 mounted mercenaries every turn.

I'm thinking of pullin back to the land bridge city and pillaging all the roads that face the peninsula and keeping a small 10 man force in it to bait him into taking the city with spectres/vampires while holding the rest of my forces out of sight and with road access. Hopefully by then my 2 mages with destroy undead will have gotten there in time to move in after he takes the city and with backup to use the spell on his vampire/undead hero stack to damage it enough for the rest of my cavalry to wipe em out.

I'll post my save game and hopefully people will validate me on this, or at least give me some pointers on my econ/building wealth policy for now.

 

[solistus]

I just took a quick glance at your save, but my initial thoughts:

1. I would attack now and raze his smaller cities. It looks like a significant number of your troops can reach enemy towns in 1 turn due to their insane range; I say you sneak attack now, raze those cities and regroup/rebuild troops as needed to wipe out Celo. Get him off your continent ASAP so you can concentrate on other goals in the short term and have the significant upper hand when the inevitable final battle occurs.

2. Why not switch to Order? You have the holy city and could get some good heroes unless the one Order AI snagged 'em already. Social Order is awesome as well and could allow you to grow your way out of your economic problems.

3. Speaking of economy, you're not doing too bad but you should use some of that gold to rush Libraries and whatnot in your bigger cities when you have the chance. You have a lot of territory but a lot of relatively undeveloped cities; if you focus that gold on your economy for a few turns it will pay off in the long run.

4. If your friend gives you time after you take Celo and develop your cities a bit more, think about taking over an AI. Lots of land up for grabs, you're already in the top 3 for military and could probably still take on the Clan AI if you needed to with your gold-boosted production and general AI stupidity.

 

[aswfreak12]

In response to 1, I think he still has his large vampire/hero force on the peninsula hanging out in the cities above Celo. So attacking now would spread out my troops a bit and making it easier for him to pick em off, wouldn't it?

I could change to order, but I'm worried about the balseraphs and the calabim AI would then be angry enough at me to DOW me and take me from behind while I'm focused on getting my friend off the cont.

I would If I got the chance, but my friends strat has been to summon a stack of spectres and hammer my forces from 4-5 tiles away thanks to his raider trait. So to compete I've been buying mercs every turn to replenish.

TBH I don't quite know what he would do if I booted him off the cont, all I do know is that since he built the nexus it's only a matter of time before he gets quick access to my cont and able to fortify it while he is still here.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

If he has the nexus you are in a big trouble if you do not raze the cities.
From what I read, you have a lost game at hand. I think you should try what the hippus are best. Pillaging and razing deep in his territory using small harrassing parties.
The psycological impact of this strategy is not to be underestimated.
You have to force him thin his stacks, then attack from behind with a hidden stack you would have in reserve.

I have not downloaded your save. This is what I can think of from what I have read in the thread so far.

 

[cIV_khanh93]

why will life II mages be worth anything? vamps arent undead, nad just two of them wont kill the summons.

 

[aswfreak12]

I was under the impression that vampirism gave the unit Not Alive, doesn't that qualify as undead? Shouldn't vamps be undead?

Razing is probably the best idea I've seen so far. But that still doesn't change the issue of his force already on the continent, how do I make a stand if Destroy Undead doesn't affect vamps and hes got a huge stack of 7 strength spectre summoning ******s?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

We have been over this many times. Vampires are very much alive. They represent the body sphere, which represents the base desires of living things, thus they must be living.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

I was under the impression that vampirism gave the unit Not Alive, doesn't that qualify as undead? Shouldn't vamps be undead?

Razing is probably the best idea I've seen so far. But that still doesn't change the issue of his force already on the continent, how do I make a stand if Destroy Undead doesn't affect vamps and hes got a huge stack of 7 strength spectre summoning ******s?

He is using his civ's strengths. Use yours. Damaging his units will force him to retreat, while you can hire units each turn, in addition to the ones you build. Use horce archers. You must pilage, raze and sacrifice some units in order to accomplish something. You are in a very difficult position. You should have prevented him to take a hold on your continent when you had a chance.

 

[aswfreak12]

I must have missed the vamp debates in my lurking. I kinda figured vamps in this game would agree with common lore. But to each his own I guess.

While I do acknowledge that he is using his civs strengths I am looking for ways to use my own. Pillaging doesn't seem to work as his economy allows him to run full research but still have enough gold left over to rush production.

Horse Archers would put me back a step as my mounted mercs have 7 strength, can be built instantly, and have just as much movement as horse archers. What advantage do horse archers have in this situation?

Since destroy undead is not an option then, my next best course of action would again to fortify the land bridge city, or charge in with a few mercs and take his cities while he strengthens his main force with their defenders, and raze the cities preventing him from airlifting too many every turn.

The next would be to shove all my forces in the land bridge city while I try to research mithril to get an extra edge. However he could just do what he has done up till now and bombard me with spectres.

I would advise those that look at the save game to not take his position and see his forces. However if you want to go ahead but don't give me any hints . I would like to see how people would react in my situation.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

While I do acknowledge that he is using his civs strengths I am looking for ways to use my own. Pillaging doesn't seem to work as his economy allows him to run full research but still have enough gold left over to rush production.

Food is importand. Starve him to death if you can.

Horse Archers would put me back a step as my mounted mercs have 7 strength, can be built instantly, and have just as much movement as horse archers. What advantage do horse archers have in this situation?

Flanking damage, first strikes and withdrawal chance.

Since destroy undead is not an option then, my next best course of action would again to fortify the land bridge city, or charge in with a few mercs and take his cities while he strengthens his main force with their defenders, and raze the cities preventing him from airlifting too many every turn.

The next would be to shove all my forces in the land bridge city while I try to research mithril to get an extra edge. However he could just do what he has done up till now and bombard me with spectres.

I would advise those that look at the save game to not take his position and see his forces. However if you want to go ahead but don't give me any hints . I would like to see how people would react in my situation.

I keep repeating it, but I hope not in vain. You are Hippus. Waiting can only mean your destruction. You have to act. While you wait trying to get stronger, he becomes even stronger compared to you. In fact, being able to get Vampires and build the nexus before you dealt with him, is like signing a winning contract for the Calabim. If you were Sheaim or Amurites or Bannor, things would have been the other way around.

Now, you must hurry. Don't wait. Act. Your game is strategically lost already. You must play with psycology in mind.

 

[solistus]

Oooh, I didn't realise he had the Nexus. You're in serious trouble. You need to destroy as many of his cities in as few turns as possible; if he has enough time to luxuriously port over wave after wave of high level vamps from his home territory, you have no chance. Strike now, hope for some lucky breaks. Your forces are fast enough that if he tries to wipe out your troops when they're spread out, you should be able to get a few through and hammer on Celo. If he's smart he'll keep Celo absurdly well defended, but your best bet is for him to make a mistake and the best way to make that happen is to put as much pressure on him as possible, now.

 

[JonathanStrange]

Some friend!! What if the creepy bloodsuckers are reading this even now? And what if....aieeeeeeee!

Never mind, forget I said anything.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Just take those ~60 MMs you still have and crush everything you can reach. That vampiric megastack (it is within your sight/attack range, I didn't have to control him to spot it. Look for a vampire standing out near the east coast of the peninsula, it's actually like 25 of them.), his two miniforces by the barb city and garrisoning that other city, those 3 longbowmen out in the open field (you DON'T want them reaching a city). The more turns his units get the more dangerous they are, and you don't have anything to which that applies, so.... attack!

Once everything is dead, anything you attacked with that has movement points left to spare should scatter instead of staying in one big stack, to minimize the damage that his ritualists can do. Leave healthy units in front. They have the chance to beat summons and even the actual vampires, and will buy the other units time to promote (a bunch of them should get 2 promotions, which will heal off 75% of damage taken)

Next turn, rush for the cities and pray his defenses don't hold.

You're probably screwed if he holds out tbh, but if you sit around waiting you are definitely SOL. Ritualists will mess your big army up if you just leave it standing there ripe for the picking.

If you're gonna change religion make empyrean your goal, not order. If your buddy does this again you will have your own powerful attack magic.

Not having engineering really hurt you. With it you could have done what solistus said and rushed all his cities in a turn. There is a chance that he has enough defense in Celo to survive that. But if he does, uh... good luck. If that's the case, game's his.

And your reaction to keep using MMs was right, screw HAs.